SEC Enforcement Deputy Director Sam Waldon to Leave Agency
Months after the departure of Enforcement Division Director Margaret Ryan, another leader at the Securities and Exchange Commission is stepping down.
According to the commission, Enforcement Division Director General Sam Walden will leave the agency at the end of this month after a long tenure. In a statement, chairman Paul Atkins said he had “personally benefited from Sam’s wise counsel” and wished him well.
He will be replaced as deputy director general by Osman Nawaz, who served with the SEC from 2010 to 2024 before joining the agency last month.
Walden began his tenure with the agency as a staff attorney before eventually becoming chief counsel of the Enforcement Division from 2002 to 2024. In October 2024, he became Acting Deputy Director until January 2025. Notably, Walden served as interim director of the enforcement division after Judge Margaret Ryan left the agency in March of this year.
In a statement, Walden said of Atkins, as well as current commissioners Hester Pierce and Mark Uyeda, “I am forever grateful for the opportunity to serve under their leadership and for their commitment to the agency and its mission.” Walden also thanked the Enforcement Division staff.
An SEC spokesman declined to comment further.
Walden replaces Ryan as interim director of the enforcement division. Removed from the place Less than a year after Atkins cast her in the role. After that the commission He faced pressure from Democratic lawmakers About Ryan’s resignation, citing news reports that she “clashed with the agency’s leadership” over matters in the enforcement division, including ties to associates of President Donald Trump.
According to ReutersRyan wanted to be “more aggressive in prosecuting cases of fraud and other wrongdoing,” including those related to Trump or his family, including cases such as Justin Sun and Elon Musk, but he “faced resistance” from Atkins and others on the commission.
Ryan is expected to bring a steady hand to the agency’s enforcement efforts, which Atkins called a “significant course correction” from the tenure of former chairman Gary Gensler under the Joe Biden presidential administration. But Ryan ran into a corrupt and depleted workforce following budget cuts and staff cuts.
Walden held the interim role until April, when Gibson Dunn & Crutcher partner David Woodcock took over. In a statement, Woodcock said Walden’s “positive impact on the SEC will be long-lasting.”
In the year Between 2011 and 2015, Woodcock oversaw the SEC’s Fort Worth Regional offices before leaving to become a partner at Jones Day, specializing in securities law. Prior to joining Gibson Dunn, Woodcock joined ExxonMobil as Assistant General Counsel, focusing on internal investigations and SEC defenses, advisory boards and private equity funds.
Woodcock’s appointment came the same week The agency has released its implementation report for the 2025 fiscal year.This showed a 22 percent decrease in performance year-on-year.
In a statement on the report, the agency attributed the changes to the Biden administration, saying “resources were misused … to pursue media headlines and run the numbers.”
